Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/50

Rh desire you must, in common with every true soldier, have of displaying again the British flag in triumph upon the scene of our late disasters, to advance upon and occupy the city of Kábul.

'If that event should have occurred, you will understand that it will in no respect vary the view which the Governor-General previously took of the policy now to be pursued. The Governor-General will adhere to the opinion that the only safe course is that of withdrawing the army under your command, at the earliest practicable period, into positions within the Kháibar Pass, where it may possess easy and certain communications with India.'

This for the time paralyzed all efforts towards any further movements to the front. At length however, on July 4, Lord Ellenborough wrote to Nott, allowing him to  'retire via Kábul if he would take the responsibility'; to which Nott replied on the the 20th that he would do so, and Pollock, having settled arrangements with him, started with his own force for Kábul on the 7th of August.

A few days before this, two of the English prisoners — Colin Troup and George Lawrence — had been sent down to Pollock with proposals from Akbar Khán. George Lawrence was ill, and Henry had promptly proposed to change places with him; but this was not allowed.

Henry Lawrence, in charge of the Sikh contingent, accompanied Pollock's advance, and took part in the combats at Tezin and the Huft Kotál, where his Sikhs fought well, and received the General's thanks;